The Powers That Be Don’t Want Sovereign Bonds… They Want Gold

Last week I outlined the issue of collateral and how it is the most critical issue in the financial system today. For a review of that article, click here now.

If you want further evidence that the financial elites are already preparing for a default from Spain and a collateral crunch, you should consider that the large clearing houses (ICE, CEM and LCH which oversee the trading of the $700+ trillion derivatives market) have ALL begun accepting Gold as collateral.

Gold as Collateral Acceptable for Margin Cover Purposes

From 28 August 2012 unallocated Gold (Loco London) will be accepted by LCH.Clearnet Limited (LCH.Clearnet) as collateral for margin cover purposes.

This addition to acceptable margin collateral will be subject to the following criteria;

Available for members clearing OTC precious metals forwards (LCH EnClear Precious Metals division) or precious metals contracts on the Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange. Acceptable to cover margin requirements for all markets cleared on both House and ‘Segregated’ omnibus Client accounts.

CME Group Inc. (CME)’s European clearing house, based in London, appointed Deutsche Bank AG (DBK), HSBC Holdings Plc and JPMorgan Chase & Co. as gold depositaries. There will be a 15 percent charge on the market value of gold deposits and a limit of $200 million or 20 percent of the overall initial margin requirement per clearing member based on whichever is lower, Andrew Lamb, chief executive officer of CME Clearing Europe, said today.

“We started with a narrow range of government securities and are now extending that,” Lamb said in an interview today. “We recognize there will be a massive demand for collateral as a result of the clearing mandate. This is part of our attempt to maintain the risk management standard and to offer greater flexibility to clearing members and end clients.”

Is it coincidence that this began ONLY when the possibility of a sovereign default from Greece or Spain began? Nope. This actions show that the large clearinghouses see the writing on the wall (that defaults are coming accompanied by a mad scramble for collateral) and so are moving away from paper (sovereign bonds) into hard money.

The reason?

They know that when Spain defaults the system will be rocked even harder than it was with Lehman in 2008. And they are doing everything they can get access to real collateral (Gold) when paper collateral (Spanish bonds) becomes worthless.

Remember, history has shown us time and again that defaults come in waves. So when Spain defaults, it will be only a matter of time before the rest of the PIIGS, the UK, Japan, and then the US do as well.

However, for now Spain is the biggest issue. As a result of this, Treasuries, Japanese bonds, German bunds and even French sovereign bonds remain attractive to the big banks as collateral… for now.

Indeed, it is the search for high grade collateral that has caused such periodic spikes in Treasuries, German Bunds, French sovereign bonds, and Japanese bonds (all of these have yielded 0% or even negative yields in the last five years). Big banks are moving away from PIIGS bonds into safer havens.

This is also why the Fed isn’t touching Treasuries with QE3 and why it won’t touch short-term Treasuries with Operation Twist 2 (this program sees the Fed selling short-term Treasuries to buy long-term Treasuries): the Fed wants to keep as much good quality collateral in the system as possible (long-term Treasuries are problematic because institutions know it’s highly likely the US will default within the next 30 years).

However, even this move is problematic because much of the Treasury market is locked up with governments both foreign and domestic.

Total US Sovereign Debt

$16 trillion

Foreign Nation holdings

$5 trillion

Intergovernmental holdings

$4.8 trillion

US Federal Reserve

$1.5 trillion

Remaining

$4.7 trillion

Again, this is why clearinghouses (which oversee the derivatives markets) are now allowing Gold as collateral: they know that eventually sovereign bonds will be worth less or even worthless. And they want access to their clients’ Gold for when this happens.

This is why I’ve been warning that the 2008 was just a warm-up. It’s why the Powers That Be in Europe are absolutely terrified of what’s happening there. And it’s why those investors who do not prepare in advance for what’s coming will lose everything.

If you do not want to be one of them, you need to get moving.

We have produced a FREE Special Report available to all investors titled What Europe’s Collapse Means For You and Your Savings.

This report features ten pages of material outlining our independent analysis real debt situation in Europe (numbers far worse than is publicly admitted), the true nature of the EU banking system, and the systemic risks Europe poses to investors around the world.

It also outlines a number of investments to profit from this; investments that anyone can use to take advantage of the European Debt Crisis.

Best of all, this report is 100% FREE. You can pick up a copy today at:

PS. We also offer a FREE Special Report detailing the threat of inflation as well as two investments that will explode higher as it seeps throughout the financial system. You can pick up a copy of this report at:

"Remember, history has shown us time and again that defaults come in waves. So when Spain defaults, it will be only a matter of time before the rest of the PIIGS, the UK, Japan, and then the US do as well."

So tired of people saying the UK, Japan, US, other issuers of debt in currency they control are going to default. They will just monetize. The question is how badly each of those countries will fare, both domestically and internationally, once they've gone Zimbabwe on their currencies.

A member of the press who intentionally exaggerates the current state of affairs to satisfy a personal political bias.
A relentless self-serving cheerleader for financial markets generally motivated by an ulterior motive...

"Experts" who promote their own "book," or investment strategy with an aim toward personal gain.

'U.S. likely to default within next 30 years'....well hell most of us probably wont even be alive by then. Best plan I guess is borrow as much as you can, use it to buy booze, say 'fuck it' and get drunk till your liver fails like the Russians.

Yes, it's about time reality starts to set in. Everyone is waking up to what an asset is and what is not an asset. Real assets are preferred as collateral for obvious reasons, and there will be more and more nashing of teeth as fiat procures fewer and fewer real assets. We used to call it inflation, but I understand we're not using that word anymore for whatever reason. Summed up, would you prefer gold or a promise of gold, and what faith do you have left in promises? It's that simple.

Bullionvault.com; which will come up on Google; is well worth your study. it's a unique business. licensed in England all they do is warehouse the customers metals, (gold or silver); it's all 100% allocated; serial numbered bars. period. that's a period. You can understand the whole thing in a half hour of reading on their web site; they offer storage of Gold in Zurich, and Silver in London. It's all real; they.re honest people who make a tiny, tiny, commish. off of your storage and trading; it's like three or four times cheaper than any comparable way to actually own the metal; and that;s exactly the case; you own the metal; in ounces, or kilograms; there are no shares of anything. look it up; it's well worth your time.

somewhere I heard "possession is 9-10ths law" he who holds it owns it. Zurich is more then happy to hold your gold and England feels the same way about your silver. Matter of fact, I would be more then happy to hold anybody's gold or silver or any other precious metal and anytime you want to know if its still there or not just ask me and I will e-mail you a digital picture of it so you can rest assured I am still holding it..wink..wink

I will accept any gold or silver 1 ounce or higher for safe keeping and since my desert hole in the ground in Arizona has no address you can know it will be really safe. Just send me a fed ex or ground UPS of your precious metals and I promise to "keep" hold it for you. When you want it just come and get it.

I have no problem holding my own gold, I dont even understand why someone would pay someone else a 15% vig to hold it for them? If they cant even hold their own gold then whats the point of even buying it in the first place?